A World Less Visible

Lykos groaned, then felt whoever he was laying on shift and groan as well. He rolled off Khait, and started to stand, only to note with some irritation that his left fibula appeared to be sticking out of his leg. He growled as he shoved it back into place. Walking was not going to be fun for the next couple hours. The backlash from the orb’s destruction had taken out a good section of a wall, and he was concerned part of the building was going to follow it down. “Christophe?” Lykos looked around.

“Here.” Christophe shoved the remains of a painting off himself. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but his injuries didn’t look bad. Khait looked in much worse shape. His wings were little more than char, but he was getting back to his feet. He offered Lykos a hand up.

He started to look for the others, then made a frustrated sound. “Naughty girl had defenses.” Over on the other side of the small crater he’d made, Wren was getting back to her feet.

Lykos snarled as he took a man’s arm off at the shoulder. They kept shooting him with silver bullets. The amount of waste was starting to become annoying. He used the arm to strike the last one across the face, sending the man flying back over the balcony.

“Wow.” He looked over to see Laura. The girl was grinning. “Snow White was seriously under-utilizing her manpower.”

He rolled his eyes. “I say same, but Christophe insist not appropriate for children movie.” He shook his head. “Kids today soft.”

She turned, and her eyes glowed red as her hand touched the metal of the staircase. The men coming up the stairs started jerking and twitching as though struck by tazers, falling back down in a heap. She smirked at him. “You were saying?”

“I can’t help you escape.” Adam pulled up a chair to sit next to him. “She won’t let me.”

Michaels looked at the woman who’d healed his bullet wounds. She was fiddling with some sort of weird orb. “I’ll be honest…” Michaels glanced at Adam. “I was expecting more green, a few warts…” Wren wasn’t much older than Laura, and looked like a sweet, innocent young girl.

“I can’t budge…” Ted sighed when Felipa just grinned at him. He stepped out of her way, then gave a small shake of his head as what looked like a skinny sixteen-year-old girl in flip-flops simply rolled the boulder out of the way. “Show off.” He smiled fondly before tossing her the second shovel.

Laura smiled at Adam’s sister. Coraline’s power appeared to be the ability to make plants grow, and she was walking around the house sprucing up the houseplants. And telling stories about what Adam was like as a kid. “…gigantic doofus. Instead of just telling me where it was, he climbed back over to the other side of the roof and tried to jump to the oak tree.” Coraline gave the spider plant a critical look before gesturing wildly. “Lost his grip and boom…” She slammed one hand into the other. “Went right through Mom’s brand-new picnic table. Dad comes tearing out of the house, totally panicked because he’s convinced Adam just broke every bone in his body. And then Adam just sort of stands up, dusts himself off, and you know what he went and did then?”

Ted just shook his head as he watched Sister Margaret fussing over Felipa. Felipa and Pedro had stayed behind in case muscle was needed, though he was pretty sure Iggy was correct about Pedro’s motives having a lot more to do with Molly. He was in the music room even now, sitting next to her as she patiently showed him how to play chords on the piano. Felipa had a hobby of knitting little toys, which had been enough for Sister Margaret to practically adopt the girl.

Magda took a deep breath and tried not to shoot a glare at her son. It wasn’t his fault. Khait had simply done what Lidia asked. Unfortunately, Khait was now on the couch again, with Abigail all but hovering over him protectively. He’d need more recovery time before he could zap the two extras back where he’d gotten them. “Look, I understand this has to be something of a shock.”

“Lidia…” Magda tried to calm the woman, only for Lidia to jerk her arm out of Magda’s grip.

“They can’t do this, right?” Lidia stared at Ahit. “She’s still under Ryuu’s…” Lidia swallowed. “Except I helped with this.” She put her hands over her mouth, then turned toward where Khait was sitting. “Take me to my daughter.” She looked at Bridget. “Make him take me to my daughter.”

Wren grinned, then pulled Adam to her for a kiss. “I have a surprise for you.” She caught his hand before turning to head back to their rooms, half dragging him behind her. Merlin had said he’d performed his role perfectly, and that kind of thing deserved a reward.

“They sent Adam here.” Daniel looked up hopefully. “That means the Cabal messed with Ryuu’s shit and Ryuu can get involved, right?”

Lidia immediately turned toward Ahit, and her heart sank when Ahit gave a small shake of her head. “Adam did not interfere with the dig, and you are not Ryuu’s agents.” She gave Lidia a sorrowful look. “The opposite may be true. If we involve ourselves in this matter, we will lose the benefits of Ryuu’s protection.”

Wren set the orb down, then stretched. Her muscles protested a bit, and she glanced at the clock. Then she glanced at it again. She’d been there almost two hours. It was far too easy to lose track of time when focusing on the orb. She started for the wet bar, then heard a slight coughing sound. A glance over her shoulder revealed the source. “Sybille.” She smiled as she poured a drink. “Did you have something for me?”

Gabriel stepped back as Lidia nearly pushed Matthias down in her rush to get to her son. Adam looked shell-shocked as she threw her arms around him. “Adam. Adam.” Her voice broke into sobs. “Oh, Adam.”

It took a moment for Adam to put his arms around her. “Mom…” His voice was thick. “Mom, you shouldn’t be here.” He took a deep breath. “You have to get out of here.”